THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The General Administration Department has issued an order making it compulsory for the employees of the Secretariat to punch-in their attendance from January 1.

General Administration secretary Biswanath Sinha has said that there will be salary-cut to those who doesn’t maintain office hours. The order also said that all the employees must wear ID cards to office.

The order has also asked the salary management software ‘Spark’ to be connected to punching. Also, people with no ID cards are advised to obtain one before December 15.

There are complaints that employees leave office after punching-in. currently, punching machines are installed in the main building of the Secretariat and Annex 1. There are complaints that the people in Annex 2 punch-in at the main building or Annex 1 before 10.15 am and then leave office for their personal needs. But since they have punched-in on right time, they can’t be questioned either.

Also, because there is no canteen in Annex 2, the employees who go out for a tea or lunch takes their own sweet time to return to office.

Also, though the offices of Health, Public Education, Revenue, Higher Education, Agriculture and Forest are all in Annex 2, most of the secretaries of these departments have their office in the main building of the Secretariat.